Stasis Pod

David and Jen are once again subjecting Rob to weeb nonsense as we resurrect the Superhuman Samurai Syber Pod for Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX! A run-in between two teenage girls living in a Side 6 colony leads to the inevitable starting point of any new Gundam series: a kid stealing a Gundam and being surprisingly good at piloting it! Join us this week as we get back on our anime bullshit with the first episode of GQuuuuuuX, “The Red Gundam”!

The other recruits think Medix needs to learn to lighten up, so he consults an expert… Professor Chase!? Then, a dog follows the team home from a rescue mission. Can they keep him? Join us this week for “Life of the Party” and “Dog Stray Afternoon”!

Hoist does NOT want to go to Dino Island, but when an incredibly round triceratops charges through the GroundBridge, he’s got to face his fear and deal with it! Then, Hot Shot gets a training sim mixed up with his giant hedgehog game! Join us this week for “Dino Hard” and “Hack Attack”!

The little chaos goblins won’t stop talking about dragons, so Heatwave lets them go on a dragon-themed adventure simulation! Then, a teen from Griffin Rock comes to learn from the Academy, but Wedge can’t imagine what a human might want to learn from him. Join us this week for “The Mystery of Dragon Mountain” and “Driving a Wedge”!

The Rescue Bots need help on a space mission, but can the recruits work together to pilot the Sigma? Then , what should have been an extremely simple rescue mission escalates quickly – and just keeps getting worse! Join us this week for the Rescue Bots Academy episodes “Space Case” and “Balloon Up A Tree”!

Hoist should be resting up to heal his injured arm, but who can rest when there are adorable sheep to save? Then the recruits go trick-or-treating! But wait, who is that ghost? Join us this week for the Rescue Bots Academy episodes “Little Bot Peep” and “Trick or Treat”!

Heatwave takes the recruits to Milford’s museum – and Whirl is convinced the janitor is up to no good! And what did Horace Burns do to get his statue relocated to a museum!? Then, Cody gives Hot Shot a “lucky” toy duck to help him with a bad day! Join us this week for the Rescue Bots Academy episodes “Fright At The Museum” and “Lucky Ducky”!

Boulder takes the recruits on a trip to clean up underwater garbage, but can they stop being little chaos goblins for long enough to actually help? Then, the recruits try to get out of their chores by enlisting an incredibly cute cleaning robot, and it doesn’t go well! Join us this week for “All At Sea” and “All Washed Up”!

Hot Shot and Wedge compete to see if they can beat each other at the other’s specialty, but we’re too distracted by the Heroes of Cybertron cards. Then, can the recruits learn the very important lesson that sometimes you just gotta leave your poor autistic friend alone? Join us this week for the Rescue Bots Academy episodes “Battle of the Bots” and “Medix Surprise”!

BLADES IS BACK! And he’s got a great idea to help the recruits work as a team: Cheerleading! Then he tries to teach Hot Shot some important lessons about flying. Good luck with that! Join us this week for the Rescue Bots Academy episodes “Go Team, Go!” and “The Secret of Flight”!

The recruits get a new rescue tool from Cybertron, and Hot Shot is too insecure to admit that he’s never used it! Then, the team is sent to a collapsing cave on a distant planet to save an alien plant that’s the last of its kind! But that plant kind of reminds us of someone… Join us this week for the Rescue Bots Academy episodes “The TX3000” and “The Big, Small Rescue”!

A special guest teacher shows up at the Academy: It’s Grimlock, and he’s brought a whole pile of RiD2015 continuity with him! Then, Hot Shot learns how much he needs his teammates when he tries to do a rescue on his own! So is being scared of Dinobots racist, or is it more like being scared of goths? Join us this week for the Rescue Bots Academy episodes “Tyrannosaurus Wrecked” and “Blame Game”!

When the recruits become convinced that someone’s about to be cut from the team, their determination to prove their worth only makes things worse! Then, Whirl tries to help Heatwave make a promo for the Academy, but nothing she records is good enough! What fandom meme gets a surprise nod? Join us this week for the Rescue Bots Academy episodes “Five into Four” and “Rescue Promo”!

Hoist is put in charge of a training mission, but can he keep Hot Shot and Wedge from wrecking everything trying to out-Main Character each other? Then, the recruits have an all-too-real rescue mission in Griffin Rock, and Medix has an unconventional idea to save the day! But what were the grown-ups doing that was more important than this!? Join us this week for the Rescue Bots Academy episodes “Mission Inaudible” and “Glitch”!

The Academy kids want shiny new gadgets like the big bots have, so they get Hoist to invent some — but his prototypes need a lot of work! Then, the mayor has decided to carve the Rescue Bots’ faces into a mountain as a tourist attraction, and Hot Shot thinks he should be up there too! Can the team save Griffin Rock from his hubris? Join us this week for the Rescue Bots Academy episodes “If At First…” and “Mount Botmore”!

The recruits learn the importance of ecosystems in one of Boulder’s training exercises! Then, Wedge becomes obsessed with improving the team’s response times, but his constant false alarms do more harm than good! Seriously though, what’s going on with all those tubes!? Join us this week for the Rescue Bots Academy episodes “Plan Bee” and “The Bot Who Cried Rescue”!

When Hot Shot damages their training dummy, he’s on babysitting duty until the misbehaving drone can be fixed! Then, Whirl takes charge of rescue training in the woods, but how will they all deal with getting trapped by a snow storm? And what two bots does Whirl remind us of the most? Join us this week for the Rescue Bots Academy episodes “Tough Luck Chuck” and “Whirl’d View”!

While Jen finishes settling into the new house, here’s Rob and David discussing which Marvel characters could join a Lantern corp!

We’re heading back to the Aligned Universe for Rescue Bots Academy! Hot Shot has been asked by Optimus Prime himself to join the other Rescue Bot recruits on Earth, but is the hot-headed jock really cut out for rescue work? Can he at least manage to get along with his new classmates? And what is going on with Optimus Prime’s FACE!? Join us this week as we go back to school with “Recruits” part 1 and 2!

Happy Holidays, everyone! As a special surprise this week, here’s our December 2022 Patreon episode about the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special!

Before we check back in on the Rescue Bots, we're taking a side quest to the Savage Land for a timely visit to Kraven the Hunter! Can Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends stop the Hunter's unnecessarily convoluted plan to create a dinosaur army? Which writer was clearly responsible for this episode? And what familiar song makes a surprise appearance? Join us this week for “The Crime of All Centuries”!

Cyberverse season 1 wraps up with a bang as Bumblebee’s tiny group of Autobots tries to awaken the Ark and the Autobots inside before Shockwave’s Decepticons can destroy it! Can we finally get a proper cast of characters for this series? Who Says The Thing? And how are we feeling about this season as a whole? Join us this week for “Eruption”!

Shockwave deploys a weapon that will wipe out all organic life on Earth! But how’s that supposed to help him defeat the Autobots, exactly? Then Windblade, Bumblebee, and Grimlock finally find the Ark in… exactly where we’d expect them to find it. Can they wake up the rest of the Autobots before the Decepticons get to them? Join us this week for the Cyberverse episodes “The Extinction Event” and “Awaken Sleeping Giants”!

Windblade faces down Slipstream and her Seekers to escape from the missile silo and get back to the mission! Then, Windblade and Bumblebee find Grimlock, but he’s gone feral! Can they get him back under control? And did they just completely destroy a city’s electrical grid? That seems like a problem! Join us this week for “Siloed” and “King of the Dinosaurs”!

Bumblebee and Windblade track down an autonomous backup of the Ark’s computer, Teletraan-X, but it’s bait in a Decepticon trap! When Bee escapes but leaves Windblade behind, can Teletraan-X help remind him what real heroism looks like? And does Teletraan-X even know where the Ark is? Join us this week for “Teletraan-X” and “Matrix of Leadership”!

Bumblebee and Windblade go back to Bee’s memories of Maccadam’s bar on Cybertron, watching its descent into ruins as the war took hold. But wait, did Maccadam just give them a clue to finding the Ark? Then Shockwave tries to undermine their mission by corrupting Bee’s memories, but can the Decepticon convince him that he AND Optimus were both traitors? Join us this week for the Cyberverse episodes “Maccadam’s” and “Sabotage”!

Episode numbers are an arbitrary thing, so this week we’re celebrating 400-ish episodes with a discussion of where Transformers has been, what it’s doing now (Hello Transformers One!), and where it’s going! We’ll be back with Cyberverse next time, but this week, join us for our Kind-Of Anniversary Spectacular!

This week on Stasis Pod: Bumblebee does some unguided deep-diving into his memories and finds something pretty damn traumatic, then Windblade helps him remember why Shadow Striker hates him so much. But isn’t it a little cringe to have Bumblebee as your nemesis? And what the hell just happened on Velocitron!? WHY DOES THE EPISODE END LIKE THAT!? Join us this week for the Cyberverse episodes “Terminal Velocity” and “Shadowstriker”!

Windblade helps Bumblebee remember why Megatron and his Decepticons are their enemies, then they reminisce about their first meeting at a Cybertronian sporting event! Just how damaged IS our Bee buddy? Shouldn't a Transformer sport involve more transforming? And how many times can we say “THE CUBE!” in a Hugo Weaving voice? Join us this week for “Megatron Is My Hero” and “Cube”!

Bumblebee remembers an important part of the Ark’s journey, then Windblade follows the clues and ends up in a fight with some Seekers! So what exactly is the deal with Cyberverse Grimlock? Can Bumblebee resist the urge to press the big red button? And why does the cake taste like chicken? Join us this week for “The Journey” and “Whiteout”!

Windblade and Bumblebee have a run-in with some Seekers that leaves them with a new ship! But can Windblade fix Bumblebee’s memories? Can Bumblebee stop pressing all the buttons? And wait, are those emojis in the episode titles? Join us this week for “Memory” and “Allspark”!

This week, Stasis Pod is heading into the Cyberverse! What sets this series apart from the other Transformers shows we’ve discussed so far? What does it have in common? And can Bumblebee needing a babysitter actually carry the whole season? Join us this week for an intro to Cyberverse and the first episode, “Fractured”!

Before we move on to our next series, we’re looking back at The Transformers One We Have At Home – not “War Dawn” (yet), but the historic story of the falling-out between Leader-1 and Cy-Kill of the GoBots! Were these two old friends ever as gay as Orion Pax and D-16? Which writer did his history homework? And why were there flying monkeys? Meet us in the Hall of Columns this week for “Et Tu, Cy-Kill”!

The AI Morocco has control of the training center, but he needs an edge against the Rescue Bots — he needs a human partner! Can Cody’s family get back to Griffin Rock from their worldwide assignments in time to save him from the evil AI’s grip? And are they really going to have to split up the team after all this? Join us as we say goodbye to the Rescue Bots (for now) with “Transformations”!

Optimus Prime has decided it’s time for the Rescue Bots to be split up for new assignments— so it’s a bad time for the Mini Morocco to show up! Can they keep him from souping up his new MorBot despite being assigned all over the world? Can Cody convince his dad he’s old enough for a partner of his own? And which Rescue Bot is big in China? Join us this week as we near the end of Rescue Bots (for now) with “Upgrades”!

Movie star Maven Danger has come to Griffin Rock to research a new role, but the Burns Family finds that he’s not as competent as he seems on the screen! Can they solve a series of strange crimes with him tagging along? Which bot is regretting their choice of altmode? And how many Bond movie title jokes can this episode contain? Join us this week for “A Brush with Danger”!

Cody needs to pick a specialty for the Junior First Responder Jamboree — law enforcement, firefighting, or EMT — and everyone in his family is ready to weigh in! Which path will he take? Can Graham and Boulder make an engineering camp seem appealing? And what sentence did we never think we’d say? Join us this week for “Family Business”!

Dani is heading off on a test flight to SPACE! And all kinds of things go wrong! Can the Rescue Bots help her before she crashes into the MOON? Can Blades get a grip on his attachment issues and accept her taking a full-time test pilot job? And when did Kade get so weird? Join us this week for “To Infinity… And Back”!

Madeline Pynch has found a chunk of Energon, and it’s up to the Rescue Bots and the Burns Family to stage a heist to steal it back before it explodes! Can Chase get his head around the moral complications of stealing from villains? What does Kade mean that he “doesn’t believe in Ferris wheels”? And what was the best Jim Varney movie? Join us this week for “Cody’s 11”!

We continue to be back! This week Jen and David talk about the 40th anniversary theater event, slam that Buy button on a new Straxus toy, dread having to fight off Hot Wheels collectors for a little diecast Bumblebee, and hoist a Jolly Rodger that’s also a bat! BUCKETS!!!

THE NEWS POD IS BACK! This week Jen and David discuss super-fancy Rodimus, explain why GaoGaiGar is Transformers-adjacent, touch briefly on the Energon Universe, and have a lot of thoughts about the Transformers One trailer! Welcome back to Iacon Underground Radio!

A WILD SIDESWIPE APPEARS! Mischevious Cyclone Mini-Con Bounce is on the loose in Griffin Rock, and he’s writing rude Cybertronian graffiti all over the place! Can Sideswipe actually be a team player for once and help the Rescue Bots catch him? Can Blurr convince Sideswipe to get him on the Bee Team? And how well would Strongarm get along with Chase? Join us this week for “The Need For Speed”!

Mysteriously falling spruce trees, a missing Mrs. Neederlander, and a trapped Taylor draw everyone into a series of fairy-tale adventures in the forest, but are actual fairies really behind it all? What deep concerns are raised about Cybertronian culture? And can Kade get a creative writing project out of it? Join us this week for “Once Upon a Time”!

Blades and Cody are ready to graduate from Lad Pioneers to Teen Pioneers, but to get his final badge, Blades is going to need to go to the mainland in a holographic human disguise! Can he maintain his cover when they’re faced with an unhinged camp counselor named Chickadee? What trauma made Graham drop out of the Pioneers? And which of us actually went to scout camp as a kid? Join us this week for “Camp Cody”!

When Bumblebee lands at the Rescue Bots’ Training Center, it’s a chance to catch up on all that’s happened in the last few years, including his new voice! But his ship’s got a hitchhiker in the form of a hatchling Energon eater, and it’s on the loose! Can they catch it before it drains the whole team? Can Blades come to terms with his friend’s big changes? And how many stories are tagged “BumbleBlades” on AO3? Join us this week for “Uninvited Guest”!

Griffin Rocks continues its obsession with food-based holidays and STEM fields with a Pizza Pi Party! But can the team save the town when some experimental super-yeast makes out-of-control dough? Why is Blades judging the cooking competition when he doesn’t actually eat food? And who doesn’t care how many rocks or bugs are in his slice? Join us this week for a “Pizza Pi Party”!

This week we mash up two classic 90s movies: Chief Burns and Dani head to Rwanda to help his brother Woodrow with a gorilla problem a la Congo, and back on Griffin Rock, the remaining brothers learn that they might be royalty a la King Ralph! Can the Chief and his brother help their new gorilla friends escape menacing baboons AND a volcano? Who is way too quick to embrace monarchy? And what was Blades really hoping to see in Africa? Join us this week for “King Burns”!

Blurr feels useless being a race car on a rescue team, so he decides to take up competitive racing – but to keep from blowing their cover, he needs a driver! Can he and Dani really compete against normal human drivers? Can Mayor Luskey earn the respect of his older brother, Mayor Luskey? And are Dani and Blades in an open relationship now? Join us this week for “Hot Rod Bot”!

The new training center’s AI assistant has gone haywire! Can the Bots get things under control before Dani’s test pilot team flies over and blows their cover? Can Blurr and Quickshadow outrun a Roomba? Would a temporary flight restriction supersede a military training schedule? And who totally called this twist? Join us this week for the second part of this season’s mid-season two-parter, “The More Things Stay the Same”!

The Rescue Bots Training Center is all ready for the bots to move in, but everybody’s having mixed feelings about the change. Will all the exciting features of the new center make the transition a little easier? What is going on with Dani’s test pilot gig? And what do you mean there was never a toy of this extremely toyetic training center? Join us this week for part 1 of the season 4 mid-seasion two-parter, “The More Things Change…”!

Griffin Rock’s cell tower is in dire need of replacement – but Mayor Luskey “invested” the infrastructure money in an inflatable Brash Ball stadium instead! Can the Rescue Bots and the Burns Family raise enough money with side gigs to fund a replacement? Why is this even their problem to fix? How many people watching this even remember the show Taxi? And what should you maybe not order from Temu? Join us this week for “Part-Time Heroes”!